It turned out that Americans who cast ballots looked collectively much more like what President Barack Obama had envisioned - a diverse tapestry that reflected a changing America - than the whiter, older electorate Mitt Romney had banked on.

EDGE Media Network reached out to the nation’s LGBT organizations before Election Day to ask what they wanted to see from the new president, from HIV funding to protection of service members and seniors, to combating homelessness and bullying.

Forty gay couples in South Dakota applied to be married during the first month following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized such unions across the country, according to data provided by the state Department of Health.